Husband and Wife Sleeping

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 38x48

Here is a paradox: the longer we live, the more people we know. The more people we know, the fewer close friends remain. The fewer close friends remain, the lonelier we are. The lonelier we are the greater the distance between us and our loved ones.  

Friederike

I am proud of this work, both as a portrait and a painting. Friederike, generally, doesn't have a habit of tilting her head; I did it arbitrary. What was I thinking? I thought, let's give it an angle. Friederike, nevertheless, is very recognizable here. Maybe it is my tilt of a head? I added this color strip on another side, like the painting were not good enough without it. It disturbs me, but I keep it. It makes Friederike more strait, like a strait-edge, because Friederike is 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 34x48

Three Portraits of Thao

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 36x48

This painting had an unpromising beginning. One may have a different opinion, and maybe now I am that one seeing a merit in arbitrariness. This is the reason I want to paint in very different manners; I don't want to deny other ways of reacting to reality. Paint reacts the way it wants, and I like to be present, to coexist in the moment. So when after I've seen Thao to the door and reentered the cave, I emptied yet another cup of coffee and got very angry with this painting, but it was too late already and time to go to bed. On the verge of falling asleep I convinced myself that the only way to fight the looseness, which at that drowsy moment spelled the lousiness of Tao's portrait for me, was geometry, but Thao was totally organic, so geometry had to include elements of nature. The landscape in the square within the diamond is illusive, because I painted it on reversed side of the Mylar sheet to be seen through the film. It made it easier to include it into the allover Russian Avantguard Geometrical composition, at least according to my thinking at that time.

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 36x48

Geometry was not totally out of merit, but I missed Thao's femininity. In the next portrait I also reflected on the inversion of the world; the paradise birds are singing upside down around Thao's torso. They, too, exist in the parallel world on reversed side of Mylar.

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 36x48

 

            

Anny and the Stuffed Eggplent Recipe

 

ED. 2013 acrylic/mylar 36x48

Stuffed Eggplants with Beef and Turkey Bacon

Ingredients: 2 tablespoon olive oil, 2 eggplants, 1 lb. lean beef (substitutable with tofu), 3 stripes of turkey bacon (substitutable with vegan bacon), 1 clove of garlic, 1 slices of Borodinsky bread from any Russian market (substitutable with pumpernickel) 4 tablespoons of orange juice, 2 tablespoons of no sugar cranberry juice, 1 teaspoon of sumac, 1/3 teaspoon of oregano, salt.

Method: Heat oven to 350 F. Cut bread into small cubes and toast them in oven. Cut beef into narrow stripes, throw them on deep skillet and stir-fry in olive oil for 5-7 min. Meanwhile cut eggplants in half and cut out pulp. Cut pulp in small cubes and throw them on the skillet together with beef.  Add juices and all spices simmer another 15-20min. Add toasted bread into mix. Stuff eggplant halves with mix. Bake on the oven for 15-20 min. Serve worm.

This recipe shouldn't be here. Anny is a vegetarian who dislikes eggplants to the point of getting allergic. I, on another hand, cannot imagine life without eggplants, their obedient texture, acrimonious taste and grimy color. That's where we are different.  

Two Very Diffeerent Portraits

             

ED. 2013 acrylic/mylar 36x48         ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 36x48

I look at these two paintings and can't help thinking that I may be suffering of multiple personality disorder. There are two different girls in the portraits, that's true, but I, the painter, am the same... Is it normal? I have to remember to ask my therapist next time when I see him on Tuesday at 6pm.

Michael's Guitar

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 38x48

Memory is a result of the generation of networks through which the new introduces itself compulsively, and like an addiction, into older episodes of pain.

P. Sloterdijk

Sad Books

 

ED. 2013. acrylic/mylar 34x48

She could have sat there without saying a word for two hours, or for as long as I had asked her. It almost made me uncomfortable, so I said, "I heard you like reading." "I do..." "What kind of books do you like?" "Sad books." "You like to read sad books?" "Yes." "What do you like about sad books?" "I like to think about sadness of life..."  She was fifteen years old.

Claim to Faim

 

ED. 2014. acrylic/mylar 24x36

Exposure. Exposure. Exposure.

Privacy. Privacy. Privacy.

Who is the girl in the painting?

Who is the painter?

They chase me, they target me

They send me  personalized emails with personalized threats.

You, on another hand, don't notice me.

They are my claim to fame

Life Contamidation of Paintings

 

ED. 2013 acrylic/mylar 34x48

The best part of painting a portrait is having someone in the studio. My portrait subjects influence my painting style, the way the musicians who play in my studio do. That's the whole point of it, the life contamination of paintings, the moments lived through.

Sleeping Husband and Wife

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 48x38

Habit provides solid surrogates of security, which may be stable but do not allow for living presence of conviction.

P.Sloterdijk

For the Absence of Small Talk

 

If there is a human, whatever the theme, may my brush supply the shortage of fitting words. 

May my painting be big enough to cover the absence of small talk!

 

ED.2013 acrylic/mylar 34x48

A Peak

 

ED. 2013 acrylic/mylar 34x48

"Human existence is initially just a peak of cumulative memory" 

                                                                                     

Peter Sloterdijk

She was a reporter from local newspaper who came to my house to take interview. The article that her newspaper eventually published turned out to be totally generic and arbitrary, as this portrait, she might argue, that I had painted of her while answering interview questions. Accumulative memory, so to speak, a peak.      

Arlene

 

ED.2013 acrylic/mylar36x48

Arlene Reich, an avid writer and adventurous traveler, who in this portrait speaks with her hands.   

http://abreich.com/

White Wine Therapy

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 48x38

How therapy works? Similar to the wine. Altering mind and then somehow bringing that what we don't know to our knowing, and then maybe forgetting it again. Memories don't last. Paintings do. Mine last in the rolls.

This painting was painted while Michael Keane jammed his guitar in the studio. His melodies brought this painting about. It is unfair that paintings stay, and music melts in thin air. This one at least was saved.  Michael has the tape.

A Portrait of Maria

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 34x48

This is the best complement a woman can receive. 

A man rises from an armchair at the back of an urban cafe. On his way out he walks by her table, slows down and says, "You are the sexiest woman I have ever seen in my life!" He walks away. 

She needs to be noticed; she likes to be unveiled; she wants to be romanticized, but don't vandalize her fence! 

On Commissions

 

ED. 2013 acrylic/mylar 34x48

Yesterday my co-worker told me about another artist from Moscow who has a storefront at the Montgomery Mall. She paints there in the store hours. I will definitely visit her. On the second thought, I cannot imagine having a storefront at a mall myself. On the third thought, I know how to work publicly; I was painting homeless in the streets of Philadelphia attracting quite an audience, sometimes.

The portrait of Sam is a part of commissioned family portrait. I started by meeting with every family member and painting them separately. It was a fun part. To deliver the commission was a tricky part. To say that I didn't enjoy it would be a lie. It was a vivid human interaction, the kind of life experiences I greatly value. The vision of a commissioner and the will of an artist, where do they intersect? I am sincerely grateful for the commercial opportunity, but I post all the family members' portraits I painted as a preparation for the group portrait, and the reverse side of the group portrait that was actually rejected by the commissioner, but I will never show in my art portfolio the painting that I was actually paid for.         

On Prices

 

ED.2014 acrylic/mylar 34x48

I asked Tarek's expertise on buying a road bike. He told me that he could help to find a good used one; no need to overspend.  The road bike talk was going at the cave for quite a bit, involving several experts. Some were voting for a good used one, others pointed at undeniable virtues of a brand new machine, right for my size. 

Tarek browsed craiglist a few times for me, but ended up buying this portrait. Considering that he was a poor student preparing for Medical school, I gave him a break in price. I will be honest, there was a total of two paintings that went into paying for my bike.

It is not a sh*tty bike, obviously, but my art doesn't stink either!  

Mochtar and His Portrait

Some people cant help looking like their portraits!

It seems that their character occupies their physique so tightly that they become indistinguishable, never part, never wonder. 

Does it mean that these individuals are always together?

 

If there is rage, then there is nothing to stop it

 If there is laughter, it conquers the vicinity

 

ED.2013 acrylic/mylar

 

Bull Dreams

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 38x48

It is impossible to tell a dream, but painting it ain't easier. I would suggest that paintings and poems are trophies from the unconquerable state of dream. Maybe music, too, but I never tried to make it. Here are two different takes on the same dream. They are different but each is true, and mostly, both are false.

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 38x48

  

The Bulltrain

 

ED.2014 acrylic/mylar 48x48

Bulls occupy my imagination. They appear in dreams and visions, at night, in the full daylight, at dusk. 

The Bulltrain is a curious hybrid between nature and technology, a pure force, the best of two worlds.The passengers of this vehicle,who are they? I am not sure, but the stuff on the left, which is people and their cities is totally drawn towards the hybrid's velocity, whereas the stuff on the right, which is nothing but the sky and snow, is left unmoved.

Glenn Wallis

        
Why is it so? I guess it is called a perception. A vision of self as our work and performance appear in the changing contexts. So, when I painted the portrait one (the first from the left) I had a clear impression of a failure. You were generous, of cause, as  those who already committed themselves to my subjectivity often are. I didn't give a dime for that, you know. But now... I don't know which one I like best... Why is it so? Maybe I forgot how you look? When did I see you last? Nonsense! Portrait is not about superficial likeness, we all know that. It is about animation. Ha-ha! I remember how you once accused me in "living in animated universe"! What's wrong with that? Now that our home is full of mice and spiders, Mark and I are looking for effective means of killing that universe. I wonder if there are any. Anyway, Glenn, thank you for your support. That interview was fun. I came across too raw, real, transparent, fully disclosed, too animated, I guess. You said, "That will be hard to beat." Thanks again.

http://linesofflight.org/ 

  

Spirit and Soul

 

ED.2014 acrylic/mylar 38x48

Spirit : God, monotheism, unity, the One, ego, heaven, transcendence, above, ascent, “superior” masculine, consciousness, rationality, light, fire, sun.

Soul: daimons, polytheism, multiplicity, the Many, Anima, Earth, immanence, dark, water, moon.

Spirit and soul are not like two substances; they are symbols, like yang and ying, representing two slants of life, two perspectives. It is as though spirit were a white light diffracted into many colors by soul’s prism, or as though soul’s colors were concentrated into one white light by the prism of spirit.

Spirit and soul are reflections of each other. Thus my lists of their attributes are not meant to be seen as oppositions  --  opposition is only one way in which the tension between spirit and soul can be viewed. Other ways are best expressed in the way the personifications of myth relate to each other.

From Daimonic Reality by Patrick Harpur

 

Hillary with Her Portrait

 

ED.2014 acrylic/mylar 36x48

Immersed in conversation with this remarkable woman...

No, that's not the point!

She had too many angles as a form and  as a character as well.

"I think, I missed it," I said, "Sorry"

(I believe I know how men feel, when... you know)

"It's ok," she said, "I can come here another day."

She still had some coffee in her cup, so we continued to talk. Meanwhile, I scratched off the retched painting and stopped trying to say anything smart. I let go for a moment. 

"I kind of like what I have here," I said "I want to leave it like that. Do you have more time to sit little longer?"

So I painted two portraits that day.

 

 

Dream

 

ED.2014 acrylic/mylar 38x48

Dream has no up and down, left and right, male and female, 

personal and impersonal. 

Not exactly. 

Dream has down and up, right and left, female and male, 

impersonal and personal.

 Everything is interchangeable in a dream.  

More Anna

 

ED. 2013 acrylic/mylar 34x48

"Mom, I don't like my eyes!" 

"You look at me this way sometimes!"

 

ED. 2013 acrylic/mylar

 "Did you see Anna's portraits, Mark?" 

"No." 

"Do you want to see?" 

"Ok." 

After long examination, 

"This is the best one." 

"Thank you." 

(I have a different opinion, but it is always the case when it comes to my works) 

Anna

 

ED.2013 acrylic/mylar 34x48

"Mommie, why am I blue?" 

"Blue is your color." 

"Thank you for scarlet lips." 

"O, you like it? You're welcome."

Mia with Her Portrait

In the summer of 2013 I was doing the United Streets Citizens project http://theunitedstreetscitizens.blogspot.com/   

driving downtown every weekend, finding free parking, spotting homeless people, bracing myself to ask them to be my models for an hour, talking to them as painting, memorizing their stories, writing them down later and posting on blog together with images. 

In the fall I moved indoors into the cave. Mia was one of my very first models. I resumed to adhere to  my street practices in terms of connecting to the subjects in conversation. In the past two years I have developed as a listener and sometimes talker, I admit. 

I am looking at the beginning of Mia's portrait now and realize how badly I killed it later when Mia left the cave condemning me to the unfettered consciousness. It reminds me that good painting is not about ability to paint, but rather about withholding.

Megan

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 36x48

I heard many times from marines on the radio, that the best marines are dead. As a civilian, I can add that the best civilians rebelled and fell out of the system. The world, therefore, is not the best place.  

Amy&Kev

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 38x48

Music, songs and love. Rebellious nonconformism with no room for cynicism. Usually, when I work on a painting that hard, I put it on reverse, flip it over, that is, to allow the immediate mess of artistic process to cover up for too obvious conscious decisions. This painting has a reversed side, too, and I have a feeling that Amy&Kev will prefer it when adding this painting to the art already hanging on the walls of their  Kensington, Philadelphia townhouse. They are artists, they know best.      

He and She

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar 48x38

He and She in this painting are painted on different sides of the the same sheet of mylar. 

Family Portrait with Flowers

 

ED. 2014 acrylic/mylar48x38

I bent towards two-sided painting out of frustration. Lucky coincidence, or whatever you say to make it feel better. Just one more try before inexorable failure, no one would care to count my countless mistakes. This one I consider a victory, though. That last shot was right on target.   

Youth

 

ED. 2013. acrylic/mylar 34x48

I painted you awkwardly and awkward. You seemed to not to care. You told me that you had confidence. I was at awe. None of us is secure in the face of life, but confidence... what a precious gift it is! Let your confidence help you in life along with your intelligence and beauty!  

Lara, reversed

 

ED.2013 acrylic/mylar 34x48

This painting has another side, the façade, so to speak. Lara was not shown the side you are looking at, the reverse*, as I call it. You don't expect me to show the subjects my trial and error, do you? Yet, this is my side of choice. Here it is, for you and me only. 

What do we like about it? A pentimento - the reappearance in a painting of an original drawn or painted element which was eventually painted over by the artist? A coarse texture of careless lines usurping the softness of painting? A grotesque distortion of human shape and proportions so out of place in this case? The near ElGreco-istic formation a golden halo around the head of this blight deconstruction of childless Madonna?
When the enlightened Europeans were first introduced to the X-Ray images, some voiced a concern that with the ability to see through the skin, humanity will lose the sense of beauty. They didn't know then that vision and perception are not the same. The latter is never fixed.
* Mylar is a translucent, durable polymer film, which shows the reverse, unintended side of a painting.         

 

Bertille, a French Student

 

ED.2013. acrylic/mylar 34x48

When male new acquaintances ask me if my accent is French, I know that I have impressed them. 

Bertille is our neighbors' French exchange student of the highly acclaimed engineering school in Paris suburbs. An avid reader and a serious athlete she is the only female in the class of twenty.

Bertille fishes for words to answer my questions as I paint her at the cave. English is not her tongue.

Bertille, where is your accent from? Is it French? I am impressed!

Dreams

 

ED.2014. acrylic/mylar 38x48

 Dreams are a part of life 

They may happen at the dark of night and in the bright of day.

You are looking at a daydream. 

Michael Keane, the real life musician, descended into the cave with his guitar. He got us lost in the stream of his sound-thought. 

 It made me dream the dream my brush couldn't brush away